Politics

FOCUS: Why Policing Is Broken

Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=51548">Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone</a>

Tuesday, 01 September 2020 10:29

Excerpt: "Years of research on brutality cases shows that bad incentives in politics and city bureaucracies are major drivers of police violence."

Two police stand at their vehicle. (photo: Guardian Liberty Voice)

Why Policing Is Broken

By Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone

01 Septemebr 20

Years of research on brutality cases shows that bad incentives in politics and city bureaucracies are major drivers of police violence

ears ago, while working on a story for Rolling Stone about why so few white-collar offenders went to jail, I realized I needed to better understand why the criminal-justice system worked with such monstrous efficiency to put poorer people in prison.

What I thought would be a short detour to tackle that question ended up consuming five years, ending in two books about structural inequities in modern policing: The Divide, and I Can�t Breathe, the story of the brutal killing of Eric Garner on Staten Island.

There are obvious similarities between the Garner case and that of George Floyd. Both victims were African American men in their forties, grandfathers trying to put troubled pasts behind them. Both were approached over minor offenses.

In Floyd�s case, the issue was the alleged use of a counterfeit $20 bill. Garner was not even accused of that much. He was spotted standing on a corner the morning of July 17th, 2014, by a senior police official who sent two detectives back to the spot to, as police later phrased it, �address specific conditions � concerning the sale of illegal cigarettes.� I would later find out through my own reporting that Garner had not been selling cigarettes that morning, among other things, because he was ill.

Both Garner and Floyd died of asphyxia from being sat or knelt upon by police officers with long abuse histories. In both cases, numerous other officers and/or medical personnel refused to stop this clear abuse, or even administer aid long after the suspect had been subdued and stopped breathing.

Protesters today are asking what prompts such apparently senseless cruelty, wondering especially how it is possible that officers like Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis could continue kneeling on a defenseless man�s neck knowing he�s being filmed. He did so knowing that international protests erupted the last time police repeatedly ignored cries of �I can�t breathe� on video.

As I learned through years of talking to brutality victims and police alike, and by following cases like Garner�s through the courts, episodes like the Floyd killing happen thanks to a variety of interlocking bureaucratic and political imperatives. The individual racism of officers (and the structural racism underpinning police departments) is clearly a major part of the picture. But there are more immediately fixable problems at play as well. Here are four troubling logistical reasons these tragedies keep recurring:

Time Works Against Victims�

Even in the most appalling cases of police abuse or police homicide, media attention eventually dies down. After initial policy concessions or any number of other promises made in the heat of public anger, the system from there always reverts to form.

Once the press and protesters move on, a game of legal chicken often commences between victims and their families on the one hand, and the lawyers representing the cities or towns in question on the other. In this game, each day that passes without a conviction for police abuse or a financial settlement adds to the city�s leverage.

In one case I followed on Staten Island, police pulled an unarmed black man out of his car and stomped him until his ankle snapped in three places (he, too, cried �I can�t breathe� while struggling in a cop�s headlock). The victim had a clear case for a federal civil-rights lawsuit, but those legal battles are difficult to win if the victim is convicted of a crime stemming from the original problem arrest.

So police tend to hit those suspects with litanies of charges. In this instance, the man with the snapped ankle, who had been stopped for allegedly smoking weed in his car, was accused of menacing, criminal possession of marijuana, obstructing government administration (a catchall charge frequently added in New York cases), assault in the second degree, assault in the third degree, criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree, and two other charges.

It ended up taking 658 days for him to be cleared on all of those offenses. Only after all that time was he free to sue. Victims are often made to understand during these protracted battles that those long lists of charges � what one Baltimore resident described to me as �all that motherfucking paper they slide under the door� � might be dropped if the lawsuit threat goes away. In some places, before cases are dropped, defendants are asked to sign waivers giving up claims for �wrongful conduct� on the part of police. It�s a justice stalemate.

Even in instances severe enough to incur either a criminal charge or a grand-jury proceeding, prosecutors often have slow-walked cases, seeming to over-investigate. This stalls out the notoriously short attention span of the public.

In the grand jury investigation of Daniel Pantaleo, the officer in Garner�s case, prosecutors spent nine weeks hearing 50 witnesses before voting not to indict. Before Garner on Staten Island, there was Ernest Sayon, another black man choked to death by police, in 1994. The grand jury took seven months and a hundred witnesses to decide not to press charges.

In the case of James Powell, the teenager whose shooting death caused New York City to explode in riots in 1964, the grand jury heard 45 witnesses give 1,600 pages of testimony � before voting not to indict. In the Ferguson, Missouri, case of officer Darren Wilson, a grand jury heard 60 witnesses over three months before tossing the case.

By the time these processes wind their way to completion, few but the immediate family members remember anything ever happened. Erica Garner, daughter of Eric Garner, put it to me this way: �People just get tired.� Erica died waiting to find out if the federal government would file civil-rights charges in her father�s case. In fact, Attorney General Bill Barr declined to bring charges. Injustice has great stamina.

Abuse Records Are Secret�

Most police bureaucracies are structured in ways that allow officers to rack up long abuse histories. In the Floyd case, Derek Chauvin had 18 prior complaints led against him. Pantaleo had 14 individual allegations of misconduct lodged against him and seven official disciplinary complaints, as well as past lawsuits. In the killing of Laquan McDonald in Chicago, officer Jason Van Dyke had at least 20 different civilian complaints against him, including one excessive-force accusation that cost the city $350,000 to settle. It came out in that case that as many as 402 officers in Chicago had 20 or more complaints on file, with one having a high of 68.

In part because police have strong unions, in part because politicians effectively lobby to prevent transparency, few states allow civilians free access to abuse records. In New York, section 50-a of the state�s civil-rights code long prohibited cities from releasing any �personnel records
used to evaluate performance.� Essentially,
�even though the conduct of police is purely
�a public matter, some courts viewed records pertaining to job performance to be private and therefore protected. New York, in the wake of the Floyd case, just repealed the rule.

Still, in most jurisdictions, in fact, there�s little public record of abuse unless there�s a federal civil-rights lawsuit or a criminal indictment. Most remaining complaints are handled in-house, or through civilian-review boards, with action extremely rare.

After the Garner case, for instance, the police inspector general studied 1,048 chokehold complaints, and found only 10 that were �substantiated� by New York�s Civilian Complaint Review Board. Of those 10, none were disciplined seriously. In another study, in Chicago, analysts found that about one in 500 abuse complaints resulted in meaningful discipline.

Similarly, there�s no database of police whose false testimony (often called �test-a-lying�) has been tossed by judges. Informal networks of defense lawyers spread this knowledge of the police officers who exaggerate on the stand or make things up out of whole cloth � a typical lie might involve telling a judge you saw drugs on the �center console� of a car seat, or saw a gun in a waistband, anything to make a search legal � by word of mouth. But the public has no easy access to this information. Defense lawyers complain of not being entitled to access the abuse histories of cops involved in their own defendants� arrests. This makes it very difficult to challenge false testimony, since courts and juries presume police are telling the truth in most cases.

Body cameras have changed things somewhat, and the Obama administration proposed a national database of problem officers, but the secret or quasi-secret nature of abuse histories remains a pervasive problem, as evidenced in the Chauvin case.

�Juking the Stats��

Most major urban forces in America use one or the other variation on a strategy known as �Broken Windows� policing. This emphasizes the aggressive prosecution of minor offenses, ostensibly in an effort to discourage more serious offenses.
�The statistical picture that this strategy aims for is a sharply increased number of engagements between police and the public over minor offenses, and over time, a lower number of felony arrests. For instance, New York went from having 187,385 misdemeanor arrests in 1994 to 292,219 in 2014. Meanwhile, the number of felony arrests during that same period dropped by 60,000.

Police administrators will cite causation: The aggressive policing of open-container violations, public urination, riding bikes on sidewalks, loitering-type offenses, and disorderly conduct supposedly creates a disincentive to more serious crime.

This mania for stats grew thanks to the advocacy of people like former New York NYPD commissioner Bill Bratton, who believed police needed to devise corporate-style �goal-setting� strategies to discourage what he called �drift� in police departments. Telling captains to meet quotas for stops, searches, and arrests allowed police administrators to quantify progress, in much the same way the Army in Vietnam quantified the progress of its occupation through �body counts.�

In practice, the stats revolution created an epidemic of what cops call �stat-massaging.� In the series The Wire, this was famously called �juking the stats,� a phenomenon that creates several major issues.

Police really do conduct tons of minor stops, searches, and misdemeanor busts � what cops I spoke with for I Can�t Breathe euphemistically called �activity.� At the peak of New York�s stop-and-frisk search program, police were stopping 680,000 people per year and issuing 600,000 summonses per year, with as many as 140,000 tickets just for drinking alcohol out of an open container. The �activity� is heavily targeted in certain neighborhoods. In 2012, a New York judge named Noach Dear remarked about open-container charges, �I cannot recall ever arraigning a white defendant for such a violation.�

Conversely, felonies were often downgraded to misdemeanors to create the appearance of progress against the more serious stuff. In I Can�t Breathe, an officer named Pedro Serrano � whose work taping a superior helped end the stop-and- frisk practice � described an incident in which someone reached through the window of a home and stole liquor out of a cabinet.

�It�s a burglary,� he said. �A felony. A bullshit felony, but a felony.� But his supervisor told him not to write up the incident, to suppress the numbers of serious crime incidents on his beat. Meanwhile, New York officers were given �20 and one� monthly quotas � 20 summonses, one arrest. In this way, felonies decreased, but stops and searches multiplied.

This sent a two-pronged message to neighborhoods everywhere that the police were not there to address the citizens� most serious problems and were only there to hassle them endlessly over minor issues.

Worse, the aggressive strategies increased the number of contacts between police and civilians. These contacts often had an explicit physical component. The essence of stop-and-frisk � a search program born out of a 1968 Supreme Court case called Terry v. Ohio � was that police could put their hands on anyone they had a �reasonable� or �articulable� suspicion was about to commit a crime.

Once police departments began asking patrol officers to fulfill quotas of such �Terry stops,� cities everywhere saw massive, artificial increases in the number of physical confrontations between police and citizens, most of them minorities. It was statistically inevitable that some of these confrontations would go sideways. In this very direct way, the implementation of theory led to deaths and beatings that otherwise would not have happened.

Although stop-and-frisk was struck down in court by Shira Scheindlin, a woman Donald Trump once described as a �very against-police judge,� stats still rule policing. Commanders in many cities have to regularly explain their statistical picture to superiors. This motivates higher-ranking officers to send street-level cops to go looking for easy busts, which might be why a man like George Floyd, accused of passing a bad $20 bill, was arrested in a multi-officer showdown that looked like the capture of John Dillinger.

The same dynamic was in place with the 350-pound, diabetes-stricken Garner, who friends described as the most bustable man on Staten Island. �Eric,� one friend told me, �couldn�t run from shit.� In the era of modern policing, officers are motivated to hit this kind of minor suspect harder.

�Law and Order� Wins Votes�

The Floyd case has turned into the latest referendum on the presidency of Donald Trump, and this isn�t illogical. As detailed in I Can�t Breathe, Trump rose in part thanks to a reaction, among white voters especially, to protests in places like Ferguson (after the Michael Brown killing), and New York (after Pantaleo was cleared of killing Garner). Just before the election in 2016, a Gallup poll showed an amazing 76 percent of Americans had a �great deal� of respect for police.

This is true despite the fact that public awareness about the racial component of police violence has been raised since the Garner case. A Monmouth poll in early June showed that 49 percent of white people believe �police officers facing a difficult or dangerous situation� are more likely to use excessive force against African Americans than against whites. That number is roughly double what it was in 2016, reflecting what even some Republicans, like South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, are describing as a �sea change� in attitudes, even among conservatives, when it comes to recognizing the existence of structural racism.

For all that, the public�s trust in police remains sky-high. Last year, the regular Gallup study of confidence in institutions showed police have retained a �great deal� of support by the same 53 percent of the country since 2014, the year of Garner�s killing, and an additional 31 percent had �some� confidence. The only other major American institutions that enjoy more confidence are the military (73 percent had a �great deal/quite a lot� of confidence) and small business (68 percent). Meanwhile, the numbers for Congress (11 percent), TV news (18 percent), HMOs (19 percent), organized religion (29 percent), big business (23 percent), and banks (30 percent, down from 53 percent in 2004) have seen declines.

Even after the Floyd killing, an Ipsos poll showed 69 percent of Americans said they trust the police, reflecting a dynamic that politicians in both parties have understood for ages. No matter how much more people might understand about the mistreatment of minorities by the system, or how much outrage there might be about brutality incidents in the moment, �law and order� politicians always win votes in the next election. Trump courted these sentiments, declaring in 2016, �I am the law-and-order candidate.�

The prison population in America has grown by 700 percent since 1970, owing to a series of factors that collectively produced a revolution in policing, transforming it from a reactive force that saw solving serious reported crime as its main mission to a more proactive body charged with enforcing the more amorphous concept of �order.�

The new high-engagement, statistics-based strategies were boosted by a series of reforms instituted in the early Seventies that had wide partisan support. New York�s Republican governor, Nelson Rockefeller, was actually one of the first advocates for voluntary treatment instead of prison for drug addicts, but as governor, he ended up instituting draconian punishments for nonviolent drug offenses that would become the model for the entire country.

An effort to keep pace with demand for prison beds created by these new laws pushed New York governor and liberal icon Mario Cuomo to enact a pioneering program of mass prison construction, using monies earmarked for job development in inner cities to pay for new penitentiaries in mostly white communities upstate. Meanwhile, at the city level, �Broken Windows� or �zero tolerance� policing got its start under Mayor Ed Koch in New York and reached its nadir in Baltimore, when in 2005, Mayor Martin O�Malley oversaw the arrest of one out of every six city residents � 100,000 busts in a city of 640,000 people.

Yes, these programs were advanced by Republicans and sort-of Republicans like Rudy Giuliani and Mike Bloomberg, and police have always had the backing of �throw away the key�-type Republicans like Tom Cotton (who opposed even Donald Trump�s proposal to curb mandatory sentences) and Jeff Sessions, who as a federal prosecutor in the Eighties built a reputation for long sentences in drug cases, going so far as to support the death penalty for opioid traffickers as Trump�s attorney general.

But in big cities, the dynamic is always the same. While police reform is popular in some neighborhoods, upscale white voters and business leaders � especially real estate developers, who are usually the city�s most influential donors � will back any politician who promises to use police aggressively to protect property and commerce.

Moreover, wealthy interests have long funneled cash to police through private groups such as the Police Foundation, which has received big donations from the likes of Barclays Capital, JPMorgan Chase, and the United Arab Emirates. Current and former members include BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, developer Benjamin Winter, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, and Ivanka Trump.

Commissioners use the millions raised for these foundations to hand out tribute jobs to cronies and fund �studies� recommending improvements or expansions of police capability. One police source told the New York Post years ago that such foundations were a �piggy bank� commissioners used to create �almost a shadow government� inside the NYPD. Private-foundation money supplements cash-strapped municipal governments, helping fund everything from body cameras to bulletproof vests to counterterrorism databases and explosive-detection dogs.

That�s a lot of financial repower, and one reason even politicians who run on police reform often move to build bridges with police advocates after entering office. Bill de Blasio in New York is a classic example. He ran for mayor in 2013 on a promise to be �the only candidate to end the stop-and-frisk era,� then immediately chose as his first police commissioner Bratton, the father of stop-and-frisk. As Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti put it, as a mayor, �you better have the backs of your police officers.�

Those who want to reform the police have to understand this dynamic: No matter how much influence protesters may seem to have in the moment, politicians in the end will fall back upon familiar strategies for governance. Even relatively recent history shows voters back law-and-order candidates, even in traditionally liberal jurisdictions, from Giuliani and Bloomberg in New York, and Gavin Newsom in San Francisco, to O�Malley, whose record-breaking regime of arrests in 2005 propelled him to the Maryland governor�s seat the next year, when he ran on a claim that he�d reduced crime in Baltimore by 37 percent.

I met a lot of police officers researching this issue. Plenty of jerks, but many went into the job for good reasons. They had seen police shows like Law & Order and Columbo and movies like Serpico growing up, and dreamed of being heroes who caught killers, rescued the injured, protected women and children. Others, like Pedro Serrano, were themselves victims of racist profiling while growing up, and joined the force to help change it. Many say they want to do a very difficult job the right way, and would welcome reform, but find themselves stymied by bureaucratic imperatives they say cast police in the roles of harassers and occupiers, working alongside known problem officers the system refuses to discipline.

A reimagined police force that allowed officers to focus on serious crime would allow better officers to rise through the ranks and teach a new generation how to do the job in a smarter, more humane way. The current strategy turns policing into a physically intrusive, military-style endeavor, with artificially high numbers of tense confrontations. Ending those strategies could have dramatic positive consequences.

Even in the poorest neighborhoods, residents have conflicting views about police. There is deep anger, but also a desire for the same level of protection people in wealthier neighborhoods take for granted. Polls sometimes show a desire for more police, not fewer: That may not be the case with the defund movement, but improvements would surely be welcomed in any case. Changing the hearts of bad officers is a project for the ages. Changing the job is something that can be done for people now.

8 comments

The Real Threats to American Law and Order Are Trump's Craven Enablers

Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=9643">Robert Reich, Guardian UK</a>

Tuesday, 01 September 2020 08:32

Reich writes: "To be re-elected Trump knows he has to distract the nation from the coronavirus pandemic that he has flagrantly failed to control."

Former Clinton labor secretary Robert Reich. (photo: Steve Russell/Toronto Star)

The Real Threats to American Law and Order Are Trump's Craven Enablers

By Robert Reich, Guardian UK

01 September 20

The president railed against �violent anarchists, agitators and criminals� but he surrounds himself with lawless lackeys

ne week ago, Rusten Sheskey, a seven-year veteran of the Kenosha, Wisconsin, police department, fired at least seven shots at the back of a Black man named Jacob Blake as he opened his car door, leaving the 29-year-old father of five probably paralyzed from the waist down.

After protests erupted, self-appointed armed militia or vigilante-type individuals rushed to Kenosha, including Kyle Rittenhouse, a white 17-year-old who traveled there and then, appearing on the streets with an AR-15 assault rifle, allegedly killed two people and wounded a third.

This is pure gold for a president without a plan, a party without a platform, and a cult without a purpose other than the abject worship of Donald J Trump.

To be re-elected Trump knows he has to distract the nation from the coronavirus pandemic that he has flagrantly failed to control � leaving more than 180,000 Americans dead, tens of millions jobless and at least 30 million reportedly hungry.

So he�s counting on the reliable Republican dog-whistle. �Your vote,� Trump said in his speech closing the Republican convention Thursday night, �will decide whether we protect law-abiding Americans, or whether we give free rein to violent anarchists, agitators and criminals who threaten our citizens.�

�We will have law and order on the streets of this country,� Vice-President Mike Pence declared the previous evening, warning �you won�t be safe in Joe Biden�s America.�

Neither Trump nor Pence mentioned the real threats to law and order in America today, such as gun-toting agitators like Rittenhouse, who, perhaps not coincidentally, occupied a front-row seat at a Trump rally in Des Moines in January.

Pence lamented the death of federal officer Dave Patrick Underwood, �shot and killed during the riots in Oakland, California�, earlier this year, implying he was killed by protesters. In fact, Underwood was shot and killed by an adherent of the boogaloo boys, an online extremist movement that�s trying to ignite a race war.

Such groups have found encouragement in a president who sees �very fine people� supporting white supremacy.

The threat also comes from conspiracy theorists like Marjorie Taylor Greene, the recently nominated Republican candidate for Georgia�s 14th congressional district and promoter of QAnon, whose adherents believe Trump is battling a cabal of �deep state� saboteurs who worship Satan and traffic children for sex. Trump has praised Greene as a �future Republican star� and claimed that QAnon followers �love our country�.

And from people like Mary Ann Mendoza, a member of Trump�s campaign advisory board, who was scheduled to speak at the Republican convention until she retweeted an antisemitic rant about a supposed Jewish plan to enslave the world�s peoples and steal their land.

Clearly the threat also comes from hotheaded, often racist police officers who fire bullets into the backs of Black men and women or kneel on their necks so they can�t breathe. Needless to say, there was little mention at the Republican convention of Jacob Blake, and none of George Floyd or Breonna Taylor.

And the threat comes from Trump�s own lackeys who have brazenly broken laws to help him attain and keep power. Since Trump promised he would only hire �the best people�, 14 Trump aides, donors and advisers have been indicted or imprisoned.

Trump�s personal lawyer Rudolph W Giuliani � who ranted at the Republican convention about rioting and looting in cities with Democratic mayors � has repeatedly met with the pro-Russia Ukrainian parliamentarian Andriy Derkach, whom American intelligence has determined is �spreading claims about corruption � to undermine former Vice President Biden�s candidacy and the Democratic Party�.

In addition, federal prosecutors are investigating Giuliani�s business dealings in Ukraine with two men arrested in an alleged campaign finance scheme.

Trump�s new postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, who had been a major Trump campaign donor before taking over the post office, is being sued by six states and the District of Columbia for allegedly seeking to �undermine� the postal service as millions of Americans plan to vote by mail during the pandemic.

Not to forget the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, who spoke to the Republican convention while on an official trip to the Middle East, in apparent violation of the Hatch Act, which prohibits officials of the executive branch other than the president and vice-president from engaging in partisan politics.

You want the real threat to American law and order? It�s found in these Trump enablers and bottom-dwellers. They are the inevitable excrescence of Trump�s above-the-law, race-baiting, me-first presidency. It is from the likes of them that the rest of America is in serious need of protection.

11 comments

The Best Way to Vote in Every State

Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=55964">Molly Olmstead and Mark Joseph Stern, Slate</a>

Tuesday, 01 September 2020 08:25

Excerpt: "Our ability to exercise the right to vote is under threat. President Donald Trump has assailed mail-in voting, even though it is safe, secure, and more popular than ever before."

Voters at a polling precinct. (photo: Getty Images)

The Best Way to Vote in Every State

By Molly Olmstead and Mark Joseph Stern, Slate

01 September 20

An extremely comprehensive guide to making sure your ballot gets counted, no matter where in America you live.

mericans tend to think of voting as something you do on Election Day, a sacred democratic ritual: go to the polls, fill out your ballot in a booth, then wear an �I Voted� sticker to tout your civic virtue. The reality is often messier than that, as we�ve seen every year in the hourslong lines, broken machines, and utter confusion at polling places across the country. In 2020, amid a pandemic, this ritual is not only ineffective�it may also be dangerous.

Our ability to exercise the right to vote is under threat. President Donald Trump has assailed mail-in voting, even though it is safe, secure, and more popular than ever before. He has refused vital funding for the U.S. Postal Service, the agency millions rely on to return their absentee ballots. But even before the Trump administration started messing with the post office, many states had steadily built up obstacles to the franchise. Others, meanwhile, have expanded voting access. Now, in the vast majority of states, there are multiple ways to vote.

This guide is designed to help Americans vote�and make sure their ballots are actually counted. It is written for voters who are understandably worried that their vote might not be counted due to the vagaries of mail delivery and state election laws. And it assumes that voters will prefer to minimize their exposure to other individuals during a pandemic. Our chief goal is to recommend the safest, easiest, most reliable voting options in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.�We explain how you can vote absentee, from the safety of your own home, then return your ballot without relying on USPS.

Although every state sets a date by which absentee ballots must be received to be counted, we have excluded those from our recommendations in light of this year�s unusual circumstances. USPS fears that tens of millions of voters who rely on these dates will be disenfranchised, calling the states� schedules �incongruous� with the facts on the ground. Even before the current slowdown, the agency worried that state deadlines to request absentee ballots were too ambitious. Instead, we urge voters to request an absentee ballot immediately�as in, right now�and return it well in advance of Nov. 3.

Alabama�

Register to vote by: Oct. 19����
Early in-person voting: None
Voter ID law: Strict (At the polls, you must show a government-issued photo ID unless two election officials personally attest to your identity.)
Vote by mail: Excuse required, though all voters can cite fear of COVID-19
Notable hurdle: Absentee ballots must be signed by two witnesses and a notary public.
How easy is it to vote here:�Very difficult

You must register to vote online, by mail, or in person at a board of registrars. There is no same-day registration. When returning their ballot, voters will need to include a photocopy of their ID. Absentee ballots must be signed by two witnesses and a notary public. You can usually find a notary public at a bank, and the service is often free if you�re already a customer.

Slate�s recommendation: Request an absentee ballot now, fill it out at home, and return it by mail or in person. Each county has a separate application form and a different absentee election manager. You can request your ballot from these officials, then mail it back or hand-deliver it to them. A list of absentee election managers, including contact info is available here.

Alaska�

Register to vote by: Oct. 4
Early in-person voting: Oct. 19�Nov. 2, but dates and hours vary by borough*
Voter ID law: Strict (At the polls, you must show a government-issued photo ID or a utility bill, bank statement, paycheck, or other government document with your name and address; an election official can waive this requirement by attesting to your identity.)
Vote by mail: No excuse needed
Notable hurdle: Absentee ballots must be signed by a witness�a requirement that many voters forget to fulfill.
How easy is it to vote here: Moderately difficult�

You can register to vote online, by mail, or in person at your local clerk�s office or public library. Qualified Alaska voters who�ve applied for a Permanent Fund Dividend (oil money paid out by the state to residents who�ve lived in Alaska for a full year and intend to stay there) are automatically registered. There is no same-day registration. When returning their ballot, most voters will need to include a photocopy of an �identifier,� which includes not just government-issued IDs but also utility bills, bank statements, paychecks, or other government documents with the voter�s name and address. Absentee ballots must be signed by one witness.

Slate�s recommendation: Request an absentee ballot online and drop it off at a drop box, if available. If you choose to mail your ballot, you should track its progress online to ensure it is received.

Arizona�

Register to vote by: Oct. 5
Early in-person voting: Begins Oct. 7, but dates and hours vary by county
Voter ID law: Strict (At the polls, you must show a government-issued ID or an identifying document like a bank statement, utility bill, or vehicle registration.)
Vote by mail: No excuse needed
Notable hurdle: Residents cannot vote in person without valid identification, even if they attest to their identity and swear they don�t have the funds to fulfill the ID requirement.
How easy is it to vote here: Moderately easy�

Arizona will mail an absentee ballot application to all active voters this fall. You can register to vote online, by mail, or in person at your county recorder�s office. There is no same-day registration. If you�re disabled, a family member, household member, or caregiver may place your ballot in the mail or hand-deliver it. There is no witness requirement. If the signature on the absentee ballot envelope is �inconsistent� with the signature on the voter registration form, the county recorder must make �reasonable efforts� to notify the voter and permit a correction. A signature must be corrected within three days of the election.

Slate�s recommendation: Fill out your absentee ballot at home and drop it off at any early voting site in your county, a county recorder�s office, or a drop box, if available. If you choose to mail your ballot, you should track its progress online to ensure it�s received.

Arkansas�

Register to vote by: Oct. 5��
Early in-person voting: Begins Oct. 19, but dates and hours vary by county
Voter ID law: Strict (At the polls, you must show a photo ID issued by the government or an accredited postsecondary educational institution in Arkansas; you can also sign a sworn statement attesting to your identity, subject to approval by county board of election commissioners.)
Vote by mail: Excuse needed, though all voters can cite fear of COVID-19
Notable hurdle: A draconian and opaque signature mismatch law
How easy is it to vote here: Very difficult

You can register to vote by mail or in person with your county clerk. There is no same-day registration.�Arkansas law requires election officials to check the signature on each absentee ballot against the voter�s signature on file. If they detect a mismatch, they are not required to inform voters State law does not lay out a process by which voters can correct a mismatched signature. Arkansans who vote by mail may thus not know if their ballots have been nullified. Counties do not tell the state how many absentee ballots are rejected due to signature mismatch each election.

Slate�s recommendation: Voters who are not at a heightened risk for COVID-19 should vote early in-person. Voters who qualify can request an absentee ballot and return it in person. Voters who choose this option must deliver their ballot to the county clerk by Nov. 2. Those who return their ballot by mail must ensure that it is received by Election Day. All absentee voters must include a photocopy of an acceptable ID along with their ballot.

California�

Register to vote by: Oct. 19 (or at the polls through Election Day)
Early in-person voting: Oct. 5�Nov. 2, but dates and hours vary by county
Voter ID law: None��
Vote by mail: Ballots are automatically mailed to all active registered voters. No excuse needed.
Notable hurdle: None. California is a leader in hurdle-free voting.�
How easy is it to vote here: Very easy

You can register to vote online, by mail, or in person at a DMV or county elections office. Many post offices, public libraries, and other government offices also offer voter registration. If you have previously interacted with the California DMV, the state has automatically registered you to vote already. If you do not register by the deadline, you can register at the polls through Election Day, but you must then vote in person. California law requires election officials to check absentee ballots for signature mismatch. If they detect a mismatch�or do not see a signature at all�they must notify the voter by Nov. 25 and allow them to fix the defect by providing a statement that verifies their identity by Dec. 1.

Slate�s recommendation: Fill out your absentee ballot at home and drop it off at your early voting site, a county elections office, or a drop box, if available. If you are unable to return the ballot yourself, you may ask another individual to do it for you. If you choose to mail your ballot, you should track its progress to ensure it is received.

Colorado�

Register to vote by: Oct. 26 (or at the polls through Election Day)��
Early in-person voting: Must begin no later than Oct. 19, but dates and hours vary by county
Voter ID law: Lenient (At the polls, you must show a government-issued ID or an identifying document like a bank statement, utility bill, or vehicle registration; if you don�t have�ID, election officials must try to confirm your identity using existing records.)
Vote by mail: Ballots are automatically mailed to all active registered voters.�
Notable hurdle: None
How easy is it to vote here: Very easy

Colorado will mail ballots to all active registered voters this fall. You can register to vote online, by mail, or in person at a county election office, DMV, polling place, or armed forces recruitment office. If you have previously interacted with the Colorado DMV, the state has automatically registered you to vote already. If you do not register by the deadline, you can register at the polls through Election Day, but you must then vote in person.�Colorado law requires election officials to check absentee ballots for signature mismatch. If they detect a mismatch, they must notify the voter within three days, or no later than two days after Election Day. Voters may fix the defect by completing a form that confirms the voter�s identity and includes a photocopy of a government-issued ID or a utility bill, bank statement, paycheck, or other government document with the voter�s name and address.

Slate�s recommendation: Fill out an absentee ballot at home and drop it off at your early voting site, a county elections office, or a drop box, if available. If you are unable to return the ballot yourself, you may ask another individual to do it for you. If you choose to mail your ballot, you should track its progress online to ensure it is received. All that information is available here.

Connecticut�

Register to vote by: Oct. 27 (or at the polls on Election Day)
Early in-person voting: None
Voter ID law: Lenient (At the polls, you must show any preprinted form with your name and address or sign an affidavit attesting to your identity.)��
Vote by mail: Excuse needed, but all voters can cite fear of COVID-19
Notable hurdle: There is no in-person early voting.�
How easy is it to vote here: Moderately easy

Connecticut plans to mail absentee ballot applications to all active voters this fall. You can register to vote online, by mail, or in person at your registrar�s office. If you have previously interacted with the Connecticut DMV, the state has automatically registered you to vote already. If you do not register by the deadline, you can register at the polls on Election Day, but you must then vote in person at your local Election Day registration location.

Slate�s recommendation: Request an absentee ballot, fill it out at home, and drop it off at your town clerk�s office. If you are unable to return the ballot yourself, you may ask a caregiver or a family member to do it for you. All that information is available here.

Delaware�

Register to vote by: Oct. 10�� ��
Early in-person voting: None
Voter ID law: Lenient (At the polls, you must show any identifying document or sign an affidavit attesting to your identity.)
Vote by mail: Excuse needed, but all voters can cite fear of COVID-19
Notable hurdle: There is no in-person early voting.
How easy is it to vote here: Moderately easy

Delaware plans to mail absentee ballot applications to all registered voters this fall. You must register to vote by Oct. 10 online, by mail, or in person at your Department of Elections� county office. There is no same-day registration. Voters who forget to sign their ballots will not have a chance to correct the error, and their votes will not be counted.

Slate�s recommendation: Request an absentee ballot, fill it out at home, and drop it off at your Department of Elections� county office. If you are unable to return the ballot yourself, you may ask someone else to do it for you. All that information is available here.

District of Columbia�

Register to vote by: Oct. 13 (or at the polls through Election Day)��
Early in-person voting: Oct. 27�Nov. 2
Voter ID law: None
Vote by mail: Ballots will be automatically mailed to all active registered voters in November. No excuse needed.
Notable hurdle: There is no online registration.�
How easy is it to vote here: Very easy

The District of Columbia plans to mail absentee ballots to all active registered voters. You can register to vote by Oct. 13 by mail, or in person at a government agency or early voting site. If you have previously interacted with the DMV, the state has automatically registered you to vote already. If you do not register by the deadline, you can register at the polls through Election Day, but you must then vote in person.

Slate�s recommendation: Fill out your ballot at home and drop it off at a drop box or early voting location. There will be 50 drop boxes around the city and 17 early vote centers. If you are unable to return the ballot yourself, you can have someone else do it for you. If you choose to mail your ballot, you should track its progress online to ensure it is received.

Florida�

Register to vote by: Oct. 5
Early in-person voting: Must begin statewide by Oct. 24, but counties may begin offering it on Oct. 19
Voter ID law: Lenient (At the polls, you must show a photo ID or provide a signature that officials match to the signature from your voter registration form.)
Vote by mail: No excuse needed
Notable hurdle: Voters cannot return absentee ballots to voting sites on Election Day.
How easy is it to vote here: Moderately easy

You must register to vote by Oct. 5 online, by mail, or in person at a DMV or many other government agencies. There is no same-day registration. Florida law requires election officials to check the signature on each absentee ballot against the voter�s signature on file. If they detect a mismatch, election officials must notify the voter �as soon as practicable.� Voters must fix the defect by submitting an affidavit within two days of the election.

Slate�s recommendation: Request an absentee ballot, fill it out at home, and drop it off at your supervisor of elections� office or a drop box, which is available outside early voting sites. If you are unable to return the ballot yourself, you may have someone else do it for you. If you choose to mail your ballot, you should track its progress online to ensure it is received.

Georgia�

Register to vote by: Oct. 5�
Early in-person voting: Must begin statewide by Oct. 12, but dates and hours vary by county
Voter ID law: Strict (At the polls, you must show a government-issued photo ID.)
Vote by mail: No excuse needed
Notable hurdle: The state�s voter ID law is notoriously stringent.
How easy is it to vote here: Moderately difficult

You must register to vote by Oct. 5 online, by mail, or at your county registrar�s office. The state requires no excuse to vote by mail. There is no same-day registration.�Georgia law requires election officials to check the signature on each absentee ballot against the voter�s signature on file. Under a court settlement, if a ballot is rejected for signature mismatch, election officials must promptly notify voters and give them an opportunity to fix the defect.

Slate�s recommendation: Request an absentee ballot, fill it out at home, and drop it off at your county registrar�s office, or a drop box if your county offers it. If you are unable to return the ballot yourself due to a disability, you may ask a family member to do it for you. If you choose to mail your ballot, you should track its progress online to ensure it is received. All that information is available here.

Hawaii�

Register to vote by: Oct. 5 (or at the polls through Election Day)
Early in-person voting: Oct. 20�Nov. 2, but dates and hours vary by county
Voter ID law: Lenient (At the polls, you must show a government-issued ID or an identifying document like a bank statement, utility bill, or vehicle registration; if you don�t have these documents, you can simply recite your address and date of birth.)
Vote by mail: Ballots are automatically mailed to all active registered voters.
Notable hurdle: None
How easy is it to vote here: Very easy

You can register to vote online, by mail, or in person at your County Election Division by Oct. 5. If you do not register by the deadline, you can register at the polls through Election Day, but you must then vote in person.

Slate�s recommendation: Fill out your ballot at home and drop it off at any early voting site in your county, a county elections office, or a drop box, if available. If you are unable to return the ballot yourself, you may ask another individual to do it for you. If you choose to mail your ballot, you should track its progress online to ensure it is received.�Hawaii law requires election officials to check the signature on each absentee ballot against the voter�s signature on file.�If they detect a mismatch�or do not see a signature at all�they must promptly notify the voter and allow them to fix the defect within five days after the election.

Idaho�

Register to vote by: Oct. 9 (or at the polls through Election Day)
Early in-person voting: Oct. 19�30, but dates and hours vary by county
Voter ID law: Lenient (At the polls, you must show a photo ID issued by the government or a school in the state, or sign an affidavit confirming your identity.)
Vote by mail: No excuse needed
Notable hurdle: Election officials aren�t required to let voters fix a signature mismatch.
How easy is it to vote: Moderately easy

You can register to vote online, by mail, or in person at your local elections office by Oct. 9. If you do not register by the deadline, you can register at the polls through Election Day, but you must then vote in person. This process is called same-day registration. Idaho law requires election officials to check the signature on each absentee ballot against the voter�s signature on file. If they detect a mismatch, they are not obligated to notify the voter and allow them to fix the defect. Election officials have nonetheless instituted procedures that let voters remedy an alleged signature mismatch.

Slate�s recommendation: Request an absentee ballot, fill it out at home, and drop it off at your county clerk�s office. If you choose to mail your ballot, you should track its progress online to ensure it is received.

Illinois�

Registration deadline: Oct. 6 by mail, Oct. 18 online, through Election Day in person
Early in-person voting: Sept. 24�Nov. 2, but dates and hours vary by county
Voter ID law: None
Vote by mail: No excuse needed
Notable hurdle: The state botched implementation of automatic voter registration, so do not assume you�ve been automatically registered even if you should�ve been.
How easy is it to vote: Very easy

You can register to vote by mail by Oct. 6 or online until Oct. 18. If you do not register by these deadlines, you can register at your local elections office or at your early voting site through Election Day. You can also register at the polls on Election Day, but you must then vote in person.

Slate�s recommendation: Request an absentee ballot, fill it out at home, and drop it off at a local elections office or drop box, if available. If you are unable to return the ballot yourself, you may ask another individual to do it for you. If you choose to mail your ballot, you should track its progress online using the system set up by individual counties. All that information is available here. Illinois law requires election officials to check the signature on each absentee ballot against the voter�s signature on file. If they detect a mismatch�or find any missing information�they must notify the voter within two days and allow them to fix the defect within 14 days of the election.

Indiana�

Register to vote by: Oct. 5
Early in-person early voting: Beginning Oct. 6, but dates and hours vary by county
Voter ID law: Strict (At the polls, you must show a government-issued photo ID; if you do not have one, you must return after the election and attest that you are too poor to get one.)
Vote by mail: Excuse required, and fear of COVID-19 does not count
Notable hurdle: Fear of COVID-19, by itself, is not a valid excuse to vote by mail.
How easy is it to vote: Very difficult

You must register to vote online, by mail, or in person at your county clerk�s office by Oct. 5. There is no same-day registration. Indiana law requires election officials to check the signature on each absentee ballot against the voter�s signature on file. In August, a federal judge ordered Indiana to provide voters notice and an opportunity to cure any ballot voided for mismatch. Given the federal judiciary�s hostility to voting rights, Indiana residents have no guarantee that this decision will remain in effect through November.

Slate�s recommendation: Vote early in person. Even if you qualify to vote absentee, the state has a stringent signature mismatch law that may void your ballot. Indiana law does not require election officials to notify voters when their ballots have been nullified due to signature mismatch. If officials do provide notification, the remedy is byzantine: You must obtain a certificate from their county board by 5 p.m. on Election Day, then vote in person�defeating the purpose of voting absentee in the first place.

Iowa�

Register to vote by: Oct. 24 (or at your county auditor�s office or the polls on Election Day)
Early in-person voting: None, although you can fill out your absentee ballot at your county auditor�s office, which provides an accessible ballot marking device for disabled people
Voter ID law: Strict (At the polls, you must show a government-issued photo ID; if you don�t have one, another registered voter in their precinct must attest to your identity.)
Vote by mail: No excuse needed
Notable hurdle: A stringent voter ID law requirement for in-person voters
How easy is it to vote here: Moderately easy

Iowa will mail an absentee ballot application to all active voters this fall. You must register to vote online, by mail, or in person at your county auditor�s office. You can also register at the polls on Election Day, but you must then vote in person.�Election officials must promptly notify voters who forget to sign their absentee ballot affidavit�or commit another error in completing their ballot�and give them an opportunity to fix the problem by submitting a replacement ballot or voting in person.

Slate�s recommendation: Request an absentee ballot, fill it out at home, and drop it off at their county auditor�s office or drop box, if available. If you are unable to return the ballot yourself, you may ask another individual to do it for you. If you choose to mail your ballot, you should track its progress online using the system set up by individual counties.

Kansas�

Register to vote by: Oct. 13
Early in-person voting: Must begin by Oct. 27, but offered as early as Oct. 14 in some areas (dates and hours vary by county)
Voter ID law: Strict (At the polls, you must show a photo ID issued by the government or an accredited postsecondary education institution in Kansas; you can also show a concealed carry permit from any state.)
Vote by mail: No excuse needed
Notable hurdle: A stringent voter ID requirement for in-person voters
How easy is it to vote: Moderately difficult

You must register to vote online, by mail, or in person at your county clerk�s office by Oct. 13. There is no same-day registration. Kansas law requires election officials to check the signature on each absentee ballot against the voter�s signature on file. If they detect a mismatch�or do not see a signature at all�they must promptly notify the voter and allow them to fix the defect before the final county canvass.

Slate�s recommendation: Request an absentee ballot, fill it out at home, and drop it off at your county auditor�s office or drop box, if available. If you are unable to return the ballot yourself, you may ask another individual to do it for you. If you choose to mail your ballot, you should track its progress online using the system set up by individual counties. All that information is available here.

Kentucky�

Register to vote by: Oct. 5
Early in-person voting: Begins Oct. 13, but dates and hours vary by county
Voter ID law: Strict (At the polls, you must show a photo ID issued by the government or a school; if you can�t obtain an ID, you must explain why, then provide other proof of identity, such as a credit card.)
Vote by mail: Excuse required, but all voters can cite fear of COVID-19
Notable hurdle: Absentee ballots are returned in two envelopes, and both must be signed; thousands of voters forgot to sign both in the primary and lost their votes.
How easy is it to vote: Moderately easy

You must register to vote online, by mail, or in person at your county election office by Oct. 5. There is no same-day registration. Kentucky law requires election officials to check the signature on each absentee ballot against the voter�s signature on file. It does not require them to notify voters whose ballots are voided for mismatch. However, during the June primary, Secretary of State Michael Adams implemented a system that gave voters notice of signature mismatch and an opportunity to fix the defect. He is expected to maintain this system in the general election.

Slate�s recommendation: Request an absentee ballot, fill it out at home, and drop it off at their county clerk�s office (by appointment) or drop box, if available. If you are unable to return the ballot yourself, you may ask another individual to do it for you. If you choose to mail your ballot, you should track its progress online.

Louisiana�

Register to vote by: Oct. 5 by mail or in person, or Oct. 13 online
Early in-person voting: Must begin by Oct. 20, but dates and times vary by parish
Voter ID law: Lenient (At the polls, you must show some photo ID with your name and signature, or sign an affidavit attesting to your identity.)
Vote by mail: Excuse required, and fear of COVID-19 does not count
Notable hurdle: Absentee voters must get a witness to sign their ballot.
How easy is it to vote: Very difficult

You must register to vote by mail or in person at your local registrar of voters by Oct. 5, or online by Oct. 13. Louisiana law requires election officials to check the signature on each absentee ballot against the voter�s signature on file. It does not require election officials to notify voters whose ballots are voided for signature mismatch. However, Secretary of State R. Kyle Ardoin promulgated a process through which voters in the Louisiana primary could correct a mismatched signature and is expected to promulgate similar rules for the general election. Absentee ballots must be signed by a witness.

Slate�s recommendation: Vote early in person. If you qualify to vote absentee, you can request an absentee ballot and drop it off at your registrar of voters. If you are unable to return the ballot yourself, you may ask another individual to do it for you. Under a plan proposed by Ardoin (and not yet passed by the Legislature), you might also be able to hand off ballots to election officials curbside. If you choose to mail your ballot, you should track its progress online to ensure it is received.

Maine�

Register to vote by: Oct. 19 (or in person through Election Day)*
Early in-person voting: Limited (available at your municipal clerk�s office)
Voter ID law: None
Vote by mail: No excuse needed
Notable hurdle: A confusing and unfair signature mismatch law
How easy is it to vote: Moderately easy

You must register to vote by mail, at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, or at a social services agency�by Oct. 19. You can register to vote in person at your municipal clerk�s office or city hall until Election Day. If you have previously interacted with the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, the state has automatically registered you to vote already. If you do not register before Election Day, you can register at the polls, but you must then vote in person. Maine law requires election officials to check the signature on each absentee ballot against the voter�s signature on file if the voter filled out an absentee ballot request form. Specifically, officials compare the signature on this form to the signature accompanying their ballot. If they detect a mismatch, they simply void the ballot without giving the voter an opportunity to fix the error. People who request an absentee ballot online or by phone�or who vote in person at their municipal clerk�s office�are exempt from this rule because they do not provide a second signature for comparison. Voting rights advocates are currently suing the state over its signature mismatch regime.

Slate�s recommendation: Request an absentee ballot online or by phone, fill it out at home, and drop it off at your municipal clerk�s office. If you are unable to return the ballot yourself, you may ask another individual to do it for you. Individuals who prefer to cast a ballot in person should vote early at their municipal clerk�s office. If you choose this route, you will not have to fill out an absentee ballot request form.

Maryland�

Register to vote by: Oct. 13 (or at the polls through Election Day)
Early in-person voting: Begins Oct. 26, though the state has not yet finalized locations
Voter ID law: None
Vote by mail: No excuse needed.
Notable hurdle: None
How easy is it to vote: Very easy

Maryland will mail absentee ballot applications to every voter this fall. You must register to vote online, by mail, or in person at your local board of elections by Oct. 13. If you have previously interacted with the Motor Vehicle Administration or a social services agency, the state has automatically registered you to vote already. If you do not register by the deadline, you can register at the polls through Election Day, but you must then vote in person.

Slate�s recommendation: Request an absentee ballot, fill it out at home, and drop it off at your early voting site, your local board of elections, or a drop box, if available. If you are unable to return the ballot yourself, you may ask another individual to do it for you. If you choose to mail your ballot, you should track its progress online.

Massachusetts�

Register to vote by: Oct. 24
Early in person voting: Oct. 17�30
Voter ID law: None
Vote by mail: No excuse needed
Notable hurdle: If you don�t return your ballot early, you may not be able to fix a defect.
How easy is it to vote: Very easy

You must register to vote online, by mail, or in person at your local clerk�s office by Oct. 24. If you have previously interacted with the DMV, the state has automatically registered you to vote already. There is no same-day registration.�Massachusetts law requires election officials to check the signature on each absentee ballot against the voter�s signature on file. If they detect a mismatch�or do not see a signature at all�they must send the voter a new ballot if there is sufficient time before the election. Individuals who vote absentee should therefore take care to submit their ballots as early as possible.

Slate�s recommendation: Request an absentee ballot, fill it out at home, and drop it off at your local clerk�s office or a drop box, if available. If you are unable to return the ballot yourself, you may ask another individual to do it for you. If you choose to mail your ballot, you should track its progress online.

Michigan�

Register to vote by: Oct. 19, or at your local clerk�s office before Nov. 3, or at the polls on Election Day
Early in-person voting: Limited (available at your local clerk�s office)
Voter ID law: Lenient (At the polls, you must show a photo ID or sign an affidavit attesting to your identity.)
Vote by mail: No excuse required
Notable hurdle: There are no early voting centers.
How easy is it to vote: Moderately easy

You must register to vote online or by mail by Oct. 19. You can also register to vote in person at your local clerk�s office until Election Day, then cast a ballot there. Finally, you can register at the polls on Election Day, but you must then vote in person.�Michigan law requires election officials to check the signature on each absentee ballot against the voter�s signature on file. It does not require them to notify voters whose ballots are voided for mismatch. However, in response to a lawsuit, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson has provided guidance that allows voters to fix the defect before or after Election Day.

Slate�s recommendation: Request an absentee ballot, fill it out at home, and drop it off at their local clerk�s office or a drop box, if available. If you are unable to return the ballot yourself, you may ask a family member to do it for you. If you choose to mail your ballot, you should track its progress online. You can also vote early in person at your local clerk�s office.

Minnesota�

Register to vote by: Oct. 13, or at your county election office before Nov. 3, or at the polls on Election Day
Early in-person voting: Limited (available at your county election office)
Voter ID law: None
Vote by mail: No excuse required
Notable hurdle: There are no early voting centers.
How easy is it to vote: Very easy

You must register to vote online or by mail by Oct. 13. You can also register to vote at your county election office, then cast a ballot. Some of these offices will provide additional in-person early voting sites where you can also register. Finally, you can register at the polls on Election Day, but you must then vote in person.�Minnesota law only requires election officials to check the signature on an absentee ballot against the voter�s signature on file if there is a discrepancy in other identifying information. If they detect a mismatch, they must promptly notify the voter and provide an opportunity to fix the defect.

Slate�s recommendation: Request an absentee ballot, fill it out at home, and drop it off at your county election office or a drop box, if available. If you are unable to return the ballot yourself, you may ask another individual to do it for you. If you choose to mail your ballot, you should track its progress online.

Mississippi�

Register to vote by: Oct. 5
Early in-person voting: None, although voters who qualify can fill out their absentee ballot at their county circuit clerk�s office
Voter ID law: Strict (At the polls, you must show a photo ID issued by the government or an accredited Mississippi college.)
Vote by mail: Excuse required, and fear of COVID-19 does not count
Notable hurdle: Absentee voters must get their ballot request and actual ballot notarized.
How easy is it to vote: Very difficult

You must register to vote by mail or in person with your county circuit clerk by Oct. 5. There is no same-day registration. Mississippi law requires election officials to check the signature on each absentee ballot against the voter�s signature on file. If they detect a mismatch�or do not see a signature at all�they will void the ballot without giving the voter an opportunity to fix the defect.

Slate�s recommendation: Vote on Election Day because most residents have no other option. Voters who qualify to vote absentee should request an absentee ballot and drop it off with their county circuit clerk. If you choose to mail your ballot, you cannot track its progress online to ensure it is received. Both the absentee ballot request and the ballot itself must be notarized. If you qualify to vote absentee, you can also vote early in person at your county circuit clerk�s office; you must still notarize your absentee ballot request, and a clerk at the office will notarize your ballot.

Missouri�

Register to vote by: Oct. 7
Early in-person voting: Limited (available at your county clerk�s office)
Voter ID law: Strict (At the polls, you must show a photo ID issued by the government or a Missouri school, or a utility bill, bank statement, paycheck, or other government document with your name and address. If you have no ID, you may cast a provisional ballot which will be counted if your signature matches the signature on file.)
Vote by mail:�Excuse required for an absentee ballot; no excuse required for a mail-in ballot
Notable hurdle: Your mail-in ballot must be notarized.
How easy is it to vote: Very difficult

You must register to vote online, by mail, or in person at your county clerk�s office by Oct. 7. There is no same-day registration. Missouri distinguishes between �absentee� ballots (which require an excuse and can be dropped off in person) and �mail-in� ballots (which do not require an excuse but must be mailed back).* All mail-in ballots must be notarized, and the notary service must be provided for free. Most absentee ballots need not be notarized.

Slate�s recommendation: Request�a mail-in ballot, fill it out at home, and mail it back. You may be able to track its progress online to ensure it is received depending on your local election authority. Voters who have an excuse not to vote in person on Election Day should request an absentee ballot, fill it out at home, and drop it off at their county clerk�s office.

Montana�

Register to vote by: Oct. 24 (or at a county election office or a late registration location through Election Day)
Early in-person voting: None
Voter ID law: Strict (At the polls, you must show a photo ID or a utility bill, bank statement, paycheck, or other government document with your name and address.)
Vote by mail: No excuse needed
Notable hurdle: Montana has no online voter registration.
How easy is it to vote here: Moderately easy

If you do not register by the deadline, you can register at your county election office or a late registration location through Election Day.

Montana law requires election officials to check the signature on each absentee ballot against the voter�s signature on file. If they detect a mismatch, they must promptly notify the voter and allow them to fix the defect until 8 p.m. on Election Day. Voters should return absentee ballots well in advance of Nov. 3 to ensure they will have time to address a potential mismatch.

Slate�s recommendation: Request an absentee ballot, fill it out at home, and drop it off at your county election office. If you are unable to return the ballot yourself, you may ask another individual to do it for you. If you choose to mail your ballot, you should track its progress online using the system set up by individual counties.

Nebraska�

Register to vote by: Oct. 16
Early in-person voting: Oct. 5�Nov. 2
Voter ID law: None
Vote-by-mail: No excuse needed
Notable hurdle: None
How easy is it to vote here: Very easy

If you have previously interacted with the Nebraska DMV, the state has automatically registered you to vote already. There is no same-day registration.

Slate�s recommendation: Request an absentee ballot, fill it out at home, and drop it off at the county election office. You can also vote early in person at this office. If you are unable to return the ballot yourself, you may ask another individual to do it for you. If you choose to mail your ballot, you should track its progress online using the system set up by individual counties.

Nevada�

Register to vote by: Oct. 29 online (or Oct. 6 by mail or in person, or at the polls through Election Day)
Early in-person voting: Oct. 17�30
Voter ID law: None
Vote by mail: No excuse needed
Notable hurdle: None
How easy is it to vote here: Very easy

Nevada will mail absentee ballots to all active voters this fall. You must register to vote by Oct. 29 online or by Oct. 6 by mail, or in person at your county clerk and registrar of voters� office. If you have previously interacted with the DMV, the state has automatically registered you to vote already. If you do not register by the deadline, you can register at the polls through Election Day, but you must then vote in person.�Nevada law requires election officials to check the signature on each absentee ballot against the voter�s signature on file. If they detect a mismatch, they must promptly notify the voter and allow them to fix the defect within seven days.

Slate�s recommendation: �Fill out your ballot at home and drop it off at their local county clerk and registrar of voters� office. If you are unable to return the ballot yourself, you may ask a family member to do it for you. If you choose to mail your ballot, you should track its progress online using the system set up by individual counties.

New Hampshire�

Register to vote by: Oct. 21�28 (exact dates vary by municipality; registration can also be done in person on Election Day)
Early in-person voting: Limited (available at your local clerk�s office)
Voter ID law: Lenient (At the polls, you must show a photo ID or sign an affidavit to attest to your identity, then be photographed.)
Vote by mail: Excuse required, but all voters can cite fear of COVID-19
Notable hurdle: Voters who lack ID must be photographed to vote, which critics decry as intimidation.
How easy is it to vote here: Moderately difficult

You must register to vote by six to 13 days prior to the election (exact dates vary by municipality) in person at your town or city clerk�s office. You can also call this office to request to register by mail. If you do not register by the deadline, you can register at the polls through Election Day, but you must then vote in person.�New Hampshire law requires election officials to check the signature on each absentee ballot against the voter�s signature on file. In 2018, a federal court ordered the state to notify voters and give them an opportunity to fix the defect.

Slate�s recommendation: Request an absentee ballot, fill it out at home, and drop it off at your town or city clerk�s office. You can also drop off your ballot at your assigned precinct polling place on Election Day, but we recommend returning it much farther in advance. If you are unable to return the ballot yourself, you may ask a family member to do it for you. If you choose to mail your ballot, you should track its progress online using the system set up by individual counties.

New Jersey�

Register to vote by: Oct. 13
Early in-person voting: Limited (available at your county clerk�s office)
Voter ID law: None
Vote by mail: No excuse needed
Notable hurdle: There is no online voter registration
How easy is it to vote here: Moderately easy

New Jersey plans to mail ballots to all active registered voters this fall. You must register to vote by Oct. 13 by mail or in person with a local election official. If you have previously interacted with the Motor Vehicle Commission, the state has automatically registered you to vote already. There is no same-day registration. New Jersey law requires election officials to check the signature on each absentee ballot against the voter�s signature on file. A federal court ordered the state to give voters notice and an opportunity to cure mismatches during this year�s primary. The legislature is expected to pass legislation in the near future enshrining this process into state law.

Slate�s recommendation: Fill out the absentee ballot at home and drop it off at a secure ballot drop box. If you are unable to return the ballot yourself, you may ask another individual to do it for you. You can also vote early in person with a local election official. If you choose to mail your ballot, you should track its progress online using the system set up by individual counties.

New Mexico�

Register to vote by: Oct. 6�(or in person at the county clerk�s office or an early voting location until Oct. 31)
Early in-person voting: Begins Oct. 6; dates and hours vary by county, but all county clerks will provide it on Oct. 31.
Voter ID law: None
Vote by mail: No excuse needed
Notable hurdle: None
How easy is it to vote here: Moderately easy

You must register to vote online or by mail by Oct. 6, or in person at your county clerk�s office until Oct. 31. If you have previously interacted with the Motor Vehicle Division, the state has automatically registered you to vote already. The state has approved same-day registration, but the law will not take effect until 2021.

Slate�s recommendation: R equest an absentee ballot, fill it out at home, and drop it off at your county clerk�s office or your early voting site. If you are unable to return the ballot yourself, you may ask a family member to do it for you. If you choose to mail your ballot, you should track its progress online using the system set up by individual counties.

New York�

Register to vote by: Oct. 9
Early in-person voting: Begins Oct. 24, but dates and hours vary by county
Voter ID law: None
Vote by mail: Excuse required, but all voters can cite fear of COVID-19
Notable hurdle: The state has a long history of botching elections.
How easy is it to vote here: Moderately difficult

You must register to vote by Oct. 9 online, by mail, or in person at your local elections office.�The state�s voting laws are in flux as lawmakers scramble to finalize new, more accessible voting procedures due to COVID-19. New York badly botched its primary, disenfranchising tens of thousands of voters. While voting in the state may look easier than ever on paper, it is still difficult to ensure that your ballot gets counted. New York law requires election officials to check the signature on each absentee ballot against the voter�s signature on file. If they detect a mismatch, they must promptly notify the voter and give them an opportunity to fix the defect.

Slate�s recommendation: Request an absentee ballot (here if you�re a New York City resident, here if you aren�t), fill it out at home, and drop it off at your county board of elections. If you choose to mail your ballot, you should track its progress online using the system set up by individual counties.

North Carolina�

Register to vote by: Oct. 9 (or in person until Oct. 31)
Early in-person voting: Begins Oct. 15, but dates and hours vary by county
Voter ID law: Strict (but suspended indefinitely under a federal court order)
Vote by mail: No excuse needed
Notable hurdle: Absentee ballots must be signed by a witness.
How easy is it to vote here: Moderately difficult

You must register to vote by Oct. 9 online, by mail, or in person at your county board of elections. (Starting in September, voters will be able to request them online.) If you do not register by the deadline, you can register at the polls until Oct. 31, but you must then vote in person. There is no same-day registration on Election Day itself. This year, North Carolina election officials will not check the signature on each absentee ballot against the voter�s signature on file.

Slate�s recommendation: Vote early in-person due to the state�s stringent signature mismatch rule. Those who vote absentee should request an absentee ballot, fill it out at home, and drop it off at the county board of elections or your early voting site. If you are unable to return the ballot yourself, you may ask a family member to do it for you. If you choose to mail your ballot, you should track its progress online using the system set up by individual counties.

North Dakota�

Register to vote by: You do not need to register to vote.
Early in-person voting: October (dates and times vary by county)
Voter ID law: Strict (At the polls, you must show a government-issued photo ID or a certificate issued by a long-term care facility; if your ID lacks a residential address or date of birth, you must also show a utility bill, bank statement, paycheck, or government-issued document.)
Vote by mail: No excuse needed
Notable hurdle: The state�s infamous voter ID law disenfranchised many tribal citizens, though the state has promised to ensure that Native people can vote this year.
How easy is it to vote here: Moderately difficult

North Dakota will mail absentee ballot applications to all active registered voters.�North Dakota law requires election officials to check the signature on each absentee ballot against the voter�s signature on file. Under a court order, officials are required to notify voters whose ballots are voided for mismatch and give them an opportunity to fix the defect.

Slate�s recommendation: R equest an absentee ballot, fill it out at home, and drop it off with a local election official or at a drop box, if available. If you are unable to return the ballot yourself, you may ask another individual to do it for you. If you choose to mail your ballot, you should track its progress online using the system set up by individual counties.

Ohio�

Register to vote by: Oct. 5
Early in-person voting: October, but it varies by county
Voter ID law: Strict (At the polls, you must show a government-issued photo ID or a utility bill, bank statement, paycheck, or government check.)
Vote by mail: No excuse needed
Notable hurdle:�Each county, no matter the size, can only set up one ballot drop box.
How easy is it to vote here: Moderately easy

Ohio plans to mail absentee ballot applications to all active registered voters this fall. You must register to vote by Oct. 5 online, by mail, or in person at a county board of elections, state agency, public library, or other government building. There is no same-day registration. Voters may cast a ballot at their county board of elections or a satellite location if their board establishes one. Voters may also drop off their absentee ballot at these boards. Ohio law requires election officials to check the signature on each absentee ballot against the voter�s signature on file. If they detect a mismatch, they must promptly notify you and give you an opportunity to fix the defect within seven days after the election.

Slate�s recommendation: Request an absentee ballot, fill it out at home, and drop it off at the county board of elections or a drop box, if available. If you are unable to return the ballot yourself, you may ask a family member to do it for you. If you choose to mail your ballot, you should track its progress online using the system set up by individual counties.

Oklahoma�

Register to vote by: Oct. 9
Early in-person voting: Begins Oct. 29, but dates and hours vary by county
Voter ID law: Strict (At the polls, you must show a government-issued photo ID or a voter registration card, or sign an affidavit attesting to your identity and provide either your driver�s license number or the last four digits of your Social Security number.)
Vote by mail: No excuse needed
Notable hurdle: Normally, absentee ballots must be notarized, but because of the pandemic, voters instead submit a copy of an ID.
How easy is it to vote here: Moderately difficult

You must register to vote by Oct. 9 online, by mail, or in person at your county election board, post office, public library, or other state agencies. There is no same-day registration. Absentee ballots must be notarized or returned with a copy of a valid ID.

Slate�s recommendation: Request an absentee ballot, fill it out at home, and drop it off at your county election board. You may also cast a ballot in person at your county election board on Oct. 29 or 30. If you are unable to return the ballot yourself, you may ask your spouse to do it for you. If you choose to mail your ballot, you should track its progress online using the system set up by individual counties.

Oregon�

Register to vote by: Oct. 13
Early in-person voting: None
Voter ID law: None
Vote by mail: No excuse needed
Notable hurdle: There is no traditional in-person voting.
How easy is it to vote here: Very easy

Oregon plans to mail ballots to all active registered voters this fall. You must register to vote by Oct. 13 online, by mail, or in person at your county elections office. If you have previously interacted with the DMV, the state has automatically registered you to vote already. There is no same-day registration. Oregon law requires election officials to check the signature on each absentee ballot against the voter�s signature on file. If they detect a mismatch, they must promptly notify you and allow you to fix the defect within two weeks.

Slate�s recommendation: Fill out your absentee ballot at home and drop it off at a drop box near you. If you are unable to return the ballot yourself, you may ask another individual to do it for you. If you choose to mail your ballot, you should track its progress online using the system set up by individual counties.

Pennsylvania�

Register to vote by: Oct. 19
Early in-person voting: None
Voter ID law: None
Vote by mail: No excuse needed
Notable hurdle: There are no early voting centers.
How easy is it to vote here: Moderately difficult

You must register to vote by Oct. 19 online, by mail, or in person at your county elections office. There is no same-day registration. Pennsylvania law requires election officials to check the signature on each absentee ballot against the voter�s signature on file. If they detect a mismatch, they must promptly notify you and allow you to prove your identity at a hearing.

Slate�s recommendation: Request a mail-in ballot, fill it out at home, and drop it off at a county election office. (The state distinguishes between �mail-in� ballots for those who prefer to vote by mail and �absentee� ballots for those who must vote by mail, but there is no functional difference.) If you choose to mail your ballot, you should track its progress online using the system set up by individual counties.

Rhode Island�

Register to vote by: Oct. 4 (or at the polls on Election Day)
Early in-person voting: Limited (available at your local board of canvassers Oct. 14�Nov. 2)
Voter ID law: Lenient (At the polls, you must show a government-issued photo ID, or provide a signature that officials can match to the signature from their voter registration form.)
Vote by mail:�No excuse needed
Notable hurdle: Same-day voter registration only permits voting for the presidential and vice presidential elections.
How easy is it to vote here: Moderately easy

You must register to vote by Oct. 4 online, by mail, or in person at your local board of canvassers. If you have previously interacted with the DMV, the state has automatically registered you to vote already. If you do not register by the deadline, you can register at the polls in designated locations through Election Day, but you must then vote in person, and you can only vote for the president and vice president.�Rhode Island law requires election officials to check absentee ballots for signature mismatch. If they detect a mismatch, they must promptly notify you and allow you to fix the defect within seven days. Under a court settlement, the state has waived a requirement that compelled voters to notarize their absentee ballot or obtain the signatures of two witnesses.

Slate�s recommendation: Request a mail-in ballot, fill it out at home, and drop it off with their local board of canvassers or at a drop box, if available. Beginning 20 days before the election, you may also cast an �emergency ballot� in person at your local board of canvassers. If you are unable to return the ballot yourself, you may ask another individual to do it for you. If you choose to mail your ballot, you should track its progress online using the system set up by individual counties. Rhode Island offers limited in-person early voting.

South Carolina�

Register to vote by: Oct. 4 online or in-person, or Oct. 5 by mail
Early in-person voting: Very limited (available at in-person absentee locations)
Voter ID law: Strict (At the polls, you must show a government-issued photo ID or show a non-photo ID and sign an affidavit swearing that you could not obtain a valid photo ID.)
Vote by mail: Excuse required, and fear of COVID-19 does not count
Notable hurdle: Absentee ballots require an excuse and typically require a witness.
How easy is it to vote here: Very difficult

You must register to vote online or in person at your county elections office by Oct. 4, or by mail by Oct. 5. There is no same-day registration. Typically, a witness must sign your absentee ballot; a federal judge suspended that requirement in May due to COVID-19. Given the federal judiciary�s hostility to voting rights, however, South Carolina residents have no guarantee that this decision will remain in effect through November.

Slate�s recommendation: Vote in person on Election Day because you have no other option. Voters who qualify should request an absentee ballot, fill it out at home, and drop it off at your county elections office. Residents who qualify to vote absentee can also vote early in person at this office. If you are unable to return the ballot yourself, you may ask another individual to do it for you. If you choose to mail your ballot, you should track its progress online using the system set up by individual counties.

South Dakota�

Register to vote by: Oct. 19
Early in-person voting: Very limited (available for absentee voting at your county auditor�s office)
Voter ID law: Lenient (At the polls, you must show a photo ID issued by the government or a South Dakota school, or sign an affidavit attesting to your identity.)
Vote by mail: No excuse required
Notable hurdle: There is no online voter registration.
How easy is it to vote here: Moderately difficult

South Dakota already mailed absentee ballot applications to all active voters. You must register to vote by Oct. 19 by mail or in person at your county auditor�s office, city finance office, driver�s license station, or other state agency. There is no same-day registration.

Slate�s recommendation: Request an absentee ballot, fill it out at home, and drop it off at your county auditor�s office. You can also vote early in person at this office. If you are unable to return the ballot yourself, you may ask another individual to do it for you. If you choose to mail your ballot, you should track its progress online using the system set up by individual counties.

Tennessee�

Register to vote by: Oct. 5
Early in-person voting: Begins Oct. 14, but dates and times vary by county
Voter ID law: Strict (At the polls, you must show a government-issued photo ID or sign an affidavit swearing that you are too poor to obtain one.)
Vote by mail: Those at high risk because of underlying medical conditions and their caretakers can cite COVID-19; others may not qualify.
Notable hurdle: You must cite an excuse to request an absentee ballot.
How easy is it to vote here: Very difficult

You must register to vote by Oct. 5 online, by mail, or in person to your county election commission. There is no same-day registration. If a ballot administrator finds a signature does not match the one on file, the administrator can reject the ballot. You will be notified but will not have the opportunity to fix the defect.

Slate�s recommendation: Vote early in person. Voters who qualify should request an absentee ballot, return it by mail, and track its progress.

Texas�

Register to vote by: Oct. 5
Early in-person voting: October (dates and times vary by county)
Voter ID law: Strict (At the polls, you must show a government-issued photo ID or explain why you cannot obtain one and show supporting documents, such as a utility bill or bank statement.)
Vote by mail: Excuse required, and fear of COVID-19 does not count
Notable hurdle: Voters cannot obtain absentee ballots without an excuse.
How easy is it to vote here: Very difficult

You must register to vote by Oct. 5 by mail or in person at your local elections office. There is no same-day registration. Texas law requires election officials to check the signature on each absentee ballot against the voter�s signature on file. If they detect a mismatch, some county clerks may notify you to allow you to fix the defect, but they are not required to.

Slate�s recommendation: Vote early in person. Voters who qualify should request an absentee ballot and return it by mail. If you request an absentee ballot and are unable to return the ballot yourself, you may ask another individual to do it for you.�

Utah�

Register to vote by: Oct. 23 (or in person through Election Day)
Early in-person voting: Limited (available at vote centers)
Voter ID law: Strict (At the polls, you must show a government-issued photo ID or two documents that prove your name and residence.)
Vote by mail: No excuse required
Notable hurdle: None
How easy is it to vote here: Moderately easy

Utah plans to mail ballots to all active registered voters this fall. You must register to vote by Oct. 23 online, by mail, or in person at your county clerk�s office. If you do not register by the deadline, you can register at the polls through Election Day, but you must then vote in person.�Utah law requires election officials to check the signature on each absentee ballot against the voter�s signature on file. If they detect a mismatch, they must promptly notify you and give you an opportunity to fix the defect.

Slate�s recommendation: Fill out your absentee ballot at home and drop it off at a drop box. If you choose to mail your ballot, you should track its progress online using the system set up by individual counties.

Vermont�

Register to vote by: Nov. 3
Early in-person voting: Limited (available at the city or town clerk�s office)
Voter ID law: None
Vote by mail: No excuse needed
Notable hurdle: None
How easy is it to vote here: Very easy

Vermont plans to mail absentee ballot applications to all active registered voters this fall. You must register to vote by Nov. 3 online, by mail, in person at your town clerk�s office, or at the polls. If you have previously interacted with the DMV, the state has automatically registered you to vote already.

Slate�s recommendation: Request your absentee ballot, fill it out at home, and drop it off at the town clerk�s office. If you are unable to return the ballot yourself, you may ask a family member or caretaker to do it for you. If you choose to mail your ballot, you should track its progress online using the system set up by individual counties.

Virginia�

Register to vote by: Oct. 13
Early in-person voting: Limited (absentee voting is available at your local election office)
Voter ID law: Lenient (At the polls, you must show a photo ID or a utility bill, bank statement, paycheck, or other government document; you can also sign an affidavit attesting to your identity.)
Vote by mail: No excuse needed
Notable hurdle: None
How easy is it to vote here: Very easy

You must register to vote by Oct. 13 online, by mail, or in person at a local registrar�s office, public library, armed forces recruitment office, DMV, or other state agency. If you have previously interacted with the DMV, the state has automatically registered you to vote already. Absentee ballots must typically be signed by a witness; however, the state waived this requirement for the primary and may do so again for the general election.

Slate�s recommendation: Request an absentee ballot, fill it out at home, and drop it off at your local registrar�s office. If you are unable to return the ballot yourself, you may ask another individual to do it for you. If you choose to mail your ballot, you should track its progress online using the system set up by individual counties. Beginning Sept. 18, any resident can cast a ballot in person at their local registrar�s office.

Washington�

Register to vote by: Oct. 26, or at the polls through Election Day
Early in-person voting: Oct. 16�Nov. 2, but dates and hours vary by location
Voter ID law: Lenient (At the polls, you must show a state, employer, or student ID card, or provide a signature that officials match to the signature from your voter registration form.)
Vote by mail: No excuse needed
Notable hurdle: None
How easy is it to vote here: Very easy

Washington plans to mail ballots to all active registered voters this fall. You must register to vote online or by mail Oct. 26 or in person at your county elections office by Election Day. If you have previously interacted with the Department of Licensing, the state has automatically registered you to vote already. You can also register at the polls through Election Day, but you must then vote in person. Washington law requires election officials to check the signature on each absentee ballot against the voter�s signature on file. If they detect a mismatch, they must promptly notify you and give you an opportunity to fix the defect within 20 days.

Slate�s recommendation: Fill out your absentee ballot at home and drop it off at your county elections office or a drop box. If you choose to mail your ballot, you should track its progress online using the system set up by individual counties.

West Virginia�

Register to vote by: Oct. 13
Early in-person voting: Must begin by Oct. 21, but dates and hours vary by county
Voter ID law: Strict (At the polls, you must show some form of identification. Otherwise, another voter with a photo ID may sign an affidavit confirming your identity; if a poll worker has known you for at least six months, these requirements are waived.)
Vote by mail: Excuse required, but voters can cite fear of COVID-19
Notable hurdle: The state has an opaque signature mismatch procedure.
How easy is it to vote here: Very difficult

You must register to vote by Oct. 13 online, by mail, or in person at your county clerk�s office. If you have previously interacted with the DMV, the state has automatically registered you to vote already. West Virginia law requires election officials to check the signature on each absentee ballot against the voter�s signature on file. If they detect a mismatch, they are not required to notify voters whose ballots are voided for mismatch or give them an opportunity to fix the defect.

Slate�s recommendation: Voters who are not at a heightened risk for COVID-19 should vote early in-person. Other voters should request an absentee ballot, fill it out at home, and drop it off at your county clerk�s office. If you are unable to return the ballot yourself, you may ask another individual to do it for you. If you choose to mail your ballot, you should track its progress online using the system set up by individual counties.

Wisconsin�

Register to vote by: Oct. 14 online or by mail, Oct. 30 at your municipal clerk�s office, or at the polls through Election Day.�
Early in-person voting: Oct. 20�Nov. 1, but dates and hours vary by county
Voter ID law: Strict (At the polls, you must show a photo ID issued by the government or an accredited Wisconsin school.)
Vote by mail: No excuse needed
Notable hurdle: Absentee ballots must be signed by a witness.
How easy is it to vote: Moderately difficult

Wisconsin plans to mail absentee ballot applications to all active registered voters this fall. You must register to vote online or by mail by Oct. 14, or in person at your municipal clerk�s office by Oct. 30. If you do not register by the deadline, you can register at the polls through Election Day, but you must then vote in person.�Absentee ballots must be signed by a witness, who must provide their address.

Slate�s recommendation: Request an absentee ballot, fill it out at home, and drop it off at your municipal clerk�s office or a drop box, if your county provides one. If you choose to mail your ballot, you should track its progress online using the system set up by individual counties. The Wisconsin Elections Commission will urge clerks to use Intelligent Mail barcodes, allowing voters to track their ballots online. If your clerk does not use IMbs, you should call their office to check on the status of your ballot.

Wyoming�

Register to vote by: Oct. 19 (or at your county clerk�s office through Election Day)
Early in-person voting: Limited (available at your county clerk�s office)
Voter ID law: None
Vote by mail: No excuse needed.
Notable hurdle: There are no early voting centers.
How easy is it to vote here: Moderately difficult

Wyoming has already mailed absentee ballot applications to all active registered voters. You must register to vote by Oct. 19 by mail (mail applications must be notarized) or in person at your county clerk�s office. If you do not register by the deadline, you can still register at your county clerk�s office, or at the polls through Election Day, but you must then vote in person.

Slate�s recommendation: Request an absentee ballot, fill it out at home, and drop it off at your county clerk�s office. You can also vote early in person at this office. If you choose to mail your ballot, you should contact your county clerk for information on the status of your ballot.

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'Hurricane Amnesia': Why We Might Forget the Lessons From Hurricane Laura

Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=38082">Kate Yoder, Grist</a>

Tuesday, 01 September 2020 08:23

Yoder writes: "During the quiet stretches between ferocious storms, the fear of hurricanes dissipates, a tendency that Max Mayfield, a former National Hurricane Center director, called 'hurricane amnesia.'"

A drainage foreman scans the side of his house for storm damage after Hurricane Laura. (photo: Pu Ying Huang/Texas Tribune)

'Hurricane Amnesia': Why We Might Forget the Lessons From Hurricane Laura

By Kate Yoder, Grist

01 September 20

he worst storms loom large in the memory. The Great Galveston Hurricane nearly wiped the bustling coastal town off the map in 1900, killing somewhere between 6,000 and 12,000 people. It�s still the deadliest natural disaster in United States history. The four costliest storms to hit the country � Katrina, Harvey, Maria, Sandy � all occurred in the last 15 years and remain part of the national conversation. Smaller storms have faded from most people�s minds, but are unforgettable for the people who survived them.

As Hurricane Laura approached the Gulf Coast last week, Eric Jay Dolin was watching the news with increasing alarm. Dolin is a historian of the natural world and the author of a new book, A Furious Sky: The Five-Hundred-Year History of America�s Hurricanes, so he takes the long view when it comes to these storms. �I was feeling horrible for the people that were in the path of Laura, realizing the kinds of trauma they were going to have to endure, understanding the long tail of recovery that�ll come after this,� he said.

When Hurricane Laura slammed into southern Louisiana as a Category 4 storm on early Thursday morning, it peeled roofs off buildings, threw lampposts into the streets, and submerged huge swaths of land. At least 16 people died, and hundreds of thousands are without electricity.

The full extent of the damage might not be clear for weeks. �The real question mark, which won�t be answered for weeks, months, and perhaps years,� Dolin said, �is how well does this area recover?�

During the quiet stretches between ferocious storms, the fear of hurricanes dissipates, a tendency that Max Mayfield, a former National Hurricane Center director, called �hurricane amnesia.� The lessons of the past often fade with it.

Hurricane Laura is the strongest hurricane to hit Louisiana since 1856, when an unnamed storm tore into Isle Derniere, an outlying resort island. The storm swept through as hundreds of wealthy Louisianians danced in the resort�s ballroom, killing half of the guests and destroying parts of the island itself, where no one has reportedly lived since.

The history of hurricanes is filled with wild stories, recounted in detail in Dolin�s book. The Spaniards didn�t have a word for �hurricane� when they first sailed off to the Americas, but it didn�t take them long to borrow the Arawak word hurakan, �god of the storm.� In 1502, a hurricane near Santo Domingo tore into a fleet of almost 30 Spanish ships, killing nearly everyone on board, including Francisco de Bobadilla, who was supposed to replace Christopher Columbus as governor of Hispaniola. Only a few ships survived. It was just the beginning; colonists had no idea what threat they were up against.

All Atlantic hurricanes follow a familiar trajectory � they form off the coast of Africa and move westward � but what makes Hurricane Laura unique is that it struck during a pandemic. �The COVID situation just amplifies the economic disparities that are already there in society,� Dolin said. In Louisiana, one of the poorest states in the country, nearly 300,000 workers are unemployed, and all that lost income means that many people have even fewer resources to deal with this disaster and rebuild than usual. �I can�t imagine the horrific decisions,� he said.

Poor people always seem to bear the worst of it. Hurricane Katrina was the textbook example, as the people left behind in New Orleans, a majority Black city, were poor, disabled, and elderly. It�s hard to follow an evacuation order when you don�t have a car or money for a hotel room. Dolin said low-income people also tend to live in the areas that are subject to the worst destruction, with the weakest buildings, often near sources of potential environmental contamination, like the chemical plants that line the Mississippi River.

After Laura hit on Thursday, smoke billowed across the sky from a chemical fire from a plant a few miles away from Lake Charles, where the poverty rate is almost double the national average. Residents were told to stay indoors and close up their houses � as much as was possible given that the hurricane had peeled off roofs.

Why are local governments so unprepared for hurricanes? For starters, the threat is changing: The hotter climate is making storms wetter and more intense. Real-estate development has left many towns more prone to flooding, with rain pounding down on concrete instead of on marshes that absorb water.

It�s also hard to convince people living in vulnerable places to spend time and money preparing for a catastrophe that�ll strike who knows when. Maybe they�ve managed past hurricanes without many problems besides shattered windows. Some people make a habit of riding out storms with friends. Before Hurricane Sandy struck New York in 2012, for example, Dolin said that many residents interviewed said they weren�t as worried about the storm because Hurricane Irene, which hit the area a year earlier, wasn�t as bad as the forecasts. People paid for that mistake with their lives, Dolin said.

Another problem is that people get an �out of sight, out of mind� mentality. Even for bad hurricanes, memories start to fade as other things in our lives become more pressing. �I think to some extent, people like to forget about painful episodes in their lives,� he said.

Hurricane Laura might go down in history as an Irene. The forecast was brutal, with the National Hurricane Center predicting an �unsurvivable� 20-foot storm surge. That dire scenario didn�t materialize � the storm surge was about 9 feet where the hurricane made landfall � which could leave people with the impression, perhaps subconsciously, that the next one won�t be so bad, either. �I wouldn�t be surprised if in the coming days people will be saying, this was overhyped,� Dolin said. �Meteorology is not an exact science.�

And there�s always ignorance. In A Furious Sky, Dolin recounts how the chief of the Weather Bureau station in Galveston, Isaac Monroe Cline, assured residents in 1891 that the coast of Texas was exempt from hurricanes, �according to the general laws of the motions of the atmosphere.� The ones that had sideswiped the city in recent memory, Cline said, were meteorological accidents.

Of course, no such �general laws� existed. Less than 10 years later, Cline�s wife and unborn baby perished in the hurricane of 1900.

It�s too early to know what legacy Hurricane Laura will leave, but the storm has already made one interesting historical statement. When it barreled through Lake Charles, it toppled a Confederate monument that city officials had recently voted to hold in place. The statue of a Confederate soldier on a marble pedestal has been knocked down by storms twice before, in 1918 and 1995.

�The one thing that is certain � there�s going to be another hurricane someday,� Dolin said. �If you live there long enough, you�re going to be probably touched by another one.�

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On Climate Change, We've Run Out of Presidential Terms to Waste

Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=35861">Bill McKibben, The New Yorker</a>

Monday, 31 August 2020 12:42

McKibben writes: "This is one of those terrifying moments in the early history of the global-warming era."

Bill McKibben. (photo: Wolfgang Schmidt)

On Climate Change, We've Run Out of Presidential Terms to Waste

By Bill McKibben, The New Yorker

31 August 20

he working definition of the ongoing brain seizure that is 2020 is either that Coloradans are being told by state authorities to install smoke-resistant �safe rooms� in their houses, or that Californians now must weigh what kind of mask to wear. An N95 mask helps to filter out harmful particulates from the wildfire smoke that is overwhelming the Golden State, but many come with an exhalation valve to keep the wearer from overheating�and that valve can spread the coronavirus. Luckily, according to the ABC affiliate in San Francisco, �There�s a pretty simple fix: you can wear a cloth or surgical mask over the N95.�

This is one of those terrifying moments in the early history of the global-warming era. As of this writing, Hurricane Laura is headed for the coasts of Texas and Louisiana as a monster storm; meanwhile, the West has been erupting in flames. In California, a heat wave that had produced record-high temperatures ran into a dry storm that, within a couple of days, produced a tenth of the state�s average annual lightning discharges. (Increase the planet�s temperature just a degree Celsius, by the way, and you increase lightning activity by about twelve per cent.) Authorities told all forty million people in California to be prepared to evacuate�indeed, they told them to park their cars facing out of the driveway, in case they had to leave in seconds. But the pandemic has made evacuation more complicated, because heading to a shelter might carry its own dangers, and it has left California�s firefighting force depleted, because the state relies on prison inmates, a group that has been hit especially hard by COVID-19, to fill out its ranks. And that�s just California. The flooding crisis in China intensified again last week, as record amounts of water poured into the reservoir behind Three Gorges Dam.

Here�s what this means: if Joe Biden and Kamala Harris take over the White House, in January, they�re going to be dealing with an immediate and overwhelming climate crisis, not just the prospective dilemma that other Administrations have faced. It�s not coming; it�s here. The luxury of moving slowly, the margin for zigging and zagging to accommodate various interests, has disappeared. So, if the Democrats win, they will have to address the pandemic and the resulting economic dislocation, and tackle the climate mess all at the same time. Any climate plan must be, in some way or another, the solution to the current widespread loss of jobs.

That will not be easy, because, although the interests that keep us locked into the use of fossil-fuels are weakening, they remain strong. A remarkable new investigation by the Guardian documented how the gas industry�utilities, drillers, and unions�is spending huge sums to insure that cities don�t start encouraging homeowners to use electricity. (Part of the story documents the industry�s successful campaign to overwhelm efforts by activists in Seattle who are affiliated with 350.org, which I helped found.) But the effort to keep fossil-fuel executives out of the White House is growing: last week, even the veteran centrist John Podesta, who chaired Hillary Clinton�s 2016 Presidential campaign, was joining hands with the Sunrise Movement to demand a public pledge from the Biden team to shun oil-industry lobbyists and executives. In a Democratic Administration, however, the role of unions would be as important as the power of companies�and, so far, the building trades have done what they can to block efforts to keep fossil fuels in the ground.

As Kate Aronoff wrote in The New Republic, last week, �establishment Democrats, but also relative progressives championing a so-called just transition, continue to treat the fossil fuel industry as a reliable source of well-paid union work instead of a rapidly sinking ship. As a result, they�re mostly unprepared to rescue its passengers.� This means, she points out, that Biden (and climate policy) likely would be blamed for the loss of jobs, even if it is the cratering economics of fossil fuel that is actually driving the shift. (On Monday night, ExxonMobil was dropped from the Dow Jones Industrial Average after ninety-two years, overtaken by tech companies; as recently as 2011 it was the biggest company on earth.) �Democrats have to be willing to build a generous safety net instead of catering to deficit hawks,� Aronoff added. �And they have to start a frank conversation within the Democratic coalition about the fact that fossil fuel jobs are already disappearing.�

This isn�t impossible. In fact, Amanda Little suggests, at Bloomberg Opinion, that it�s a conversation that needs to be had across many industries: her example is beef, where new plant-based meat substitutes �can buoy American farmers who have been struggling for years by helping them diversify their crops. The key ingredients in plant-based meats are soy, dry peas, legumes and pulses. As demand grows for alternative meats, so will demand for these crops.� As Little notes, we�re growing thirty per cent more dry peas than in 2018. �Instead of declaring a war on the meat industry, Biden and Harris should celebrate its evolution. They could emphasize that meat giants like Tyson Foods Inc., JBS and Smithfield�.�.�. are themselves investing in a plant-based future.�

The point is clear: as Biden and Harris campaign for the future of our democracy this fall, they also have to lay the groundwork to fight for the future of our planet. That message can be communicated to voters: Biden showed how to do it with a commercial that linked his love of his vintage Corvette to the future of electric vehicles. No, electric sports cars and industrial pea cutlets will not save the climate; but it�s crucial, right now, on the campaign trail, for politicians to help Americans understand the rapid and unsettling transition that physics implacably demands. We�re out of Presidential terms to waste. If there�s going to be effective American action on climate, it�s going to have to come from Joe Biden.

Passing the Mic

Antonia Juhasz is a freelance journalist who has covered the oil industry for years�she wrote the cover story for the current issue of Sierra Magazine, titled �The End of Oil is Near,� with a powerful sidebar on the Trump Administration�s efforts to bail out the industry. She�s a 2020-2021 Bertha investigative-journalism fellow, working with an international cohort of journalists on fossil fuels, the climate crisis, and corporate power, and is the author of three books, most recently, �Black Tide: the Devastating Impact of the Gulf Oil Spill.�

BP announced that it�s going to cut oil and natural-gas production by forty per cent in a decade. Is this a capitulation to reality that will spread or an outlier that has them scoffing at ExxonMobil H.Q.? Are we really at an inflection point?

We are, and BP�s announcement is significant. It reflects reality: a public and its policymakers fed up with fossil fuels, making a whole lot of it simply unprofitable to produce�same for the companies that produce it. This was true before COVID-19, which has accelerated a process well underway. It could be the beginning of the end of the oil industry, but that�s largely up to us. BP�s announcement reveals important regulatory weaknesses. European oil companies are forced to report and reconcile these losses in ways that Exxon and Chevron are not. So as BP reported this month a whopping $16.8 billion losses, it also unveiled a new business model, [more focussed on low-carbon technology] that�s supposed to turn a profit. That�s good. But BP isn�t keeping its fossil fuels in the ground. Rather, it�s selling off oil and gas assets to other companies that continue to produce the fuels. That�s bad. If we want fossil fuels to remain undeveloped, we can�t rely on fossil-fuel companies. Left to its own devices, in 2030, BP still plans to devote two-thirds of its business to oil and gas.

BP also announced that it plans to transition from an �international oil company� to an �integrated energy company,� significantly increasing its renewable-energy business. Is that good news, and should it be followed by other companies?

BP, like every major oil company, has a long track record that must be taken into account as we build the new green economy. We�re subsidizing these companies to the tune of nearly five trillion dollars a year globally, so we�ve earned the right to evaluate their work. Fossil fuels are not renewable, but they are natural resources with which humans have cohabited for millennia. The devastation wrought by BP, Exxon, Chevron, Shell and others in just the last hundred and fifty years, through their control of oil, natural gas, and coal, profoundly undermines the notion that the answer to our problems is to entrust these same companies today with the sun, wind, and waves. The problem is not just the fossil fuels, but behavior and a business model that runs contrary to just about every basic tenant of equitable and just transition policy. Perhaps most importantly, theirs is a model built on ever-expanding demand. Yet if we�re going to survive the wealthiest among us�including the largest corporations�must embrace far healthier and sustainable consumption patterns that reduce our over-all usage of both energy and transportation systems.

You�ve been enthusiastic online about Kamala Harris as a climate champion. Do you know her from California? What gives you the most faith in her?

As attorney general, Kamala Harris was the rare California state official to stand not only with Richmond, a hard-hit low-income community of color, but against Chevron�the most dominant oil company in the state [which has a big refinery in Richmond]. And in the wake of the devastating Santa Barbara oil spill she took aggressive action against Plains All American Pipeline. As you�ve noted, California is an oil state, yet throughout her political career, Harris has taken just $170,865 from the �Energy & Natural Resources� industry. She�s not beholden to the oil industry, and both her policies and platform reflect that independence. As a Presidential candidate, she went further than most to embrace keep-it-in-the-ground policy, stating her unequivocal support for a full fracking ban and, most profoundly, pledging to initiate a first-of-its-kind international coalition to implement the managed decline in fossil-fuel production and the phaseout of industry subsidies worldwide. I cannot emphasize enough what a game-changer this is. She�ll push Biden to be more aggressive on environmental, climate and fossil-fuel justice, especially if the public pushes her, as well.

Climate School

The damage from rapidly rising temperatures comes in many forms. The California fires are a dramatic example, but a new study from researchers at the University of Arkansas details a more insidious threat: rising oceans push water tables higher, flooding inland areas.

Guido Girgenti and Varshini Prakash, of the Sunrise Movement, have edited a new collection of essays called �Winning the Green New Deal� that reads, in part, like a playbook for what needs to happen post-election, should Biden win. The Reverend William Barber, Naomi Klein, Rhiana Gunn-Wright, Julian Brave NoiseCat, the union leader Mary Kay Henry, and others volunteered to write pieces. (I did, too.)

Those California fires, according to a magisterial piece of reporting from Inside Climate News, remind us that a fundamental shift in fire behavior is underway. Droughts�the precursor to big blazes�used to be caused by a lack of rainfall. But, as temperatures climb, wildfires are increasingly caused by rapid evaporation during extreme heat waves. Such �heat-driven aridity� has helped create a �year-round wildfire season� in parts of the West, and in places like Australia.

On Tuesday, a committee of Democratic senators released an omnibus report on the climate crisis. In many ways, the most interesting reading begins on Page 199, where Sheldon Whitehouse, of Rhode Island, and others collate all the known data about the political-influence-buying of the fossil-fuel industry. Should the Democrats regain control of the upper chamber in November, this will likely be a blueprint for action.

They�re cutting hundreds of trees to widen the road to Gandhi�s old ashram, in India. This seems like too much irony even for 2020; hence, a petition.

Scoreboard

At Harvard, where students and faculty have been waging a fight for fossil-fuel divestment for most of the past decade, alumni weighed in decisively: an insurgent slate of candidates for the university�s Board of Overseers claimed three of five open seats in the most recent election, despite a last-ditch effort by a group of alumni who accused divestment activists of effectively �buying� the seats on behalf of �special interests.�

The Australian insurance giant Suncorp, which has been the target of an aggressive campaign by the activist group Market Forces, declared that it would no longer invest in fossil-fuel companies or underwrite their projects. That�s a big deal, especially because the country�s conservative government has made new gas development a cornerstone of its COVID-19-recovery policy.

A new study shows that Greenland lost record amounts of ice in 2019�and by record amounts, the researchers mean a million tons of ice per minute. Every second, enough water melted to fill seven Olympic-sized pools. A separate study indicated that Greenland may have passed a point of no return: even a retreat to the temperature levels of the past few decades would not be enough, at this point, to prevent the country�s eventual melt. �The ice sheet is now in a new dynamic state,� a researcher explained.

Warming Up

The mediocre nineties act Smash Mouth played the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, last month, and took the opportunity to explain to the largely unmasked crowd its theory on the pandemic: �Fuck that coronavirus shit.� So it�s either a good thing or a bad thing that, as the Times noted last spring, in a round-up of climate-related songs, the band�s hit �All Star� is actually kind of about global warming. I�m not saying you should listen to it; I�m saying that it�s interesting.

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